Bertell Ollman
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Bertell Ollman (born 1936 in Milwaukee) is a professor of politics at New York University. He teaches both dialectical methodology and socialist theory. He is the author of several academic works relating to Marxist theory (see 'Works' below).
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[edit] Class Struggle Board Game
Ollman is also the creator of Class Struggle, a board game based around his Marxist beliefs, and from 1978-1983 was president of Class Struggle, Inc., the company that initially produced and marketed the game. The game was later released by a major board game company, Avalon Hill. It received publicity due to its unusual and controversial theme[1]. However it is generally considered to be weak considered purely as a game. For example, its rating on BoardGameGeek as of February 2008 is 4.3 out of ten[2].
[edit] Other Noteworthy Events
In 1978, after having his offer of chairmanship of the Government Department at the University of Maryland College Park rescinded, Ollman sued columnists Robert Novak and Rowland Evans, alleging that a column they authored had libeled him, resulting in the rescinding of his offer. The column had characterized his teaching style as indoctrination, including an anonymous quote from another professor saying "Ollman has no status within the profession, but is a pure and simple activist." Ollman's suit was defeated in the D.C. Circuit Court, which held that Novak and Evans' column was protected speech. [1]
In 2001, he won the first Charles McCoy Life Achievement Award from the New Political Science section of the American Political Science Association.
He appeared on "Hannity & Colmes" to face the accusation that as Sean Hannity's professor in the 1980s, he had given him a lower grade for being a conservative and a supporter of Ronald Reagan[citation needed].
[edit] Works
- Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society (Cambridge U.P., l97l; 2nd ed., l976). This book has gone through thirteen printings, sold close to 30,000 copies, and been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Korean
- Studies in Socialist Pedagogy, co-ed (Monthly Review Press, l978)
- Social and Sexual Revolution: Essays on Marx and Reich (South End Press, l978)
- Class Struggle Is the Name of the Game: True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (Wm. Morrow Pub., l983); 2nd expanded ed. entitled Ball Buster? True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (Soft Skull Press, 2003)
- The Left Academy: Marxist Scholarship on American Campuses, co-ed., vol. I (McGraw Hill, l982)
- The Left Academy..., co-ed., vol. II (Praeger Pub., l984)
- The Left Academy..., co-ed., vol. III (Praeger Pub., l986)
- The U.S. Constitution: 200 Years of Anti-Federalist, Abolitionist, Feminist, Muckraker, Progressive, and Especially Socialist Criticism, co-ed. (N.Y.U. Press, l990)
- Marxism: an Uncommon Introduction (Stirling Pub., New Delhi, l99l)
- Dialectical Investigations (Routledge, l993) A French translation is forthcoming
- Market Socialism: the Debate Among Socialists, ed. and co-author (Routledge, l998). A Chinese translation appeared in 2000
- Dialectics: the New Frontier, co-ed. (Special Issue of Science and Society, Fall, l998); an expanded version of this issue will soon be published as a book
- How to Take an Exam...and Remake the World (Black Rose Books, Montreal, Spring, 2001)
- BALLBUSTER? True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman, 2002 (Soft Skull Press, 2002)
- Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2003). Turkish translation has been completed in February 2007 and a Chinese translation is being prepared.
